The northern isles of the Orkney archipelago receive fewer visitors than the main island (known as the Mainland) and those to the south. But they have a windswept magic of their own, says Mark Rowe in The Telegraph: teeming colonies of seabirds, fabulous archaeological sites, and often “violently beautiful” coastal scenery.
Each has its own character, so it’s worth visiting as many as you can, and exploring them on a bike or on foot. Many have hostels with private rooms, and some also have pubs and b&bs. Regular ferries make the tour easy, and there’s even a small- plane service between Westray and Papa Westray – the world’s shortest scheduled flight, a “hauntingly beautiful” two-minute, 1.7-mile hop over Papa Sound.
Orkney was at the heart of a seafaring neolithic civilisation that stretched from Scandinavia to southern Britain. Of the sites that survive here from this late era of the Stone Age, the village of Skara Brae, on the Mainland, is the best known – but the Knap of Howar, on Papa Westray, is at least 400 years older.
Believed to date from 3600BC, it may be the oldest stone house in northern Europe. It has two rooms, containing stone furniture, and is in a “superb” coastal setting. Also “unmissable” is the 4.5-metre-tall Stone of Setter – the Orkneys’ highest ancient monolith – on Eday, and the four-metre-tall Stan Stane on North Ronaldsay, which is perforated with a single hole, which was possibly used to calculate a prehistoric calendar.
A natural arch spanning the mouth of a cliff-ringed sea inlet, the Vat of Kirbister on Stronsay is an “elemental” sight. Still more rugged are the cliffs around the Noup Head Lighthouse on Westray, where you’re sure to see puffins between April and July.
But for “raw beauty”, it’s hard to beat Sanday, and the walk from Cata Sand (a bay with towering pale dunes and “aquamarine” waters) along the “bird-smothered” headland of Tresness to the Stone Age tomb at its head; a lonely chambered cairn, free of modern-day signage, and “lapped by the sea”.